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To the parents/Clearing stuff up:

First of all, let me explain the raw basics of discord to you, dear reader.
You get to chose a user name upon sign up, and discord automatically add a 4 digit number, a so called "tag" to it. (Example: MinecraftGamer#1234).
Strangers cannot message you randomly, and you can only chat woth others privately after accepting a friend request. To send a friend request, one needs to know both the name and tag of a person.
In essence, your kid can't chat with anyone, unless they allow so. Also, reporting and blocking a user is very easy and fast.
So, all your child needs to do is be mindful about whom it gives their tag.
About servers:
Servers are easily set up, and the admins and owner have a lot of control about who joins/stays on the server. To join a server, one needs to be invited via a special link. Admins and the owner can determine for how long this link will work.
So, your kid is once again safe, they don't invite every random idiot on planet earth.
About the NSFW Groups/swearing:
Frst of all: ACEEPT THAT YOUR CHILD IS NOT AN ANGEL. ACCEPT IT ACCEPT IT ACCEPT IT AND FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE STOP FLAMING DISCORD JUST BECAUSE YOUR KID IS A PERVERTED, HORMONE DRIVEN DONKEY.
With that off my chest: Whoever lets kids younger than 11 chat with strangers (even with monitoring) needs that kid taken away from them anyway. But let's face it, your twelve year old very much knows cursewords. Just because they act innocent around you doesn't mean they are.
Should your child feel uncomfortable with anyone at any given time, it can easily block, report, leave the group and so on.
If your kid joins an nswf server, it's probably because you made youporn impossible to access for them.
Your child doesn't get cyber abducted and put in a group with perverts who prey on them.
Rather then blocking them from discord, I recommend you have an honest conversation about sex, sexual content, pornography and so on. It's your job to raise it, not that of discord or the online community.
Diacord also hads the most amazing staff. They're always helpful and quick to fix things. DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT disrespect these people because they don't read through millions of messages a day and instead trust users to report things they feel uncomfortable about.
Last but not least: If you make it that way, discord very private. Your profile gives little to no information. Everything another person knows is your profile pic, tag and nickname, and common friends/servers. What else they know about you is in your/your child's hands.
With that being said, much love to the amazing discord staff, and I hope overprotective parents will finally stop bashing this awesome app.
DID I MENTION ITS COMPLETELY ADD FREE?For that alone it deserves an award.

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A great app, if you use it safely

I use discord and it is really handy, I use discord with roblox, I joined a public chatroom with at least 100 people on the server, I noticed a lot of swearing, inappropriate topics; pornography, bullying, sex and too many more to name. Do not join public servers and only talk with people you know and trust. If you own a server, be sure to moderate the chat and inappropriate topics. Discord also allows nsfw servers for inappropriate content. In these servers, you must verify you are 18yrs or older before you join. Over all, Discord is a great app, only if you use it safely and responsibly.

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Not recommended for kids nor adults

Discord is one of the worst ways to communicate with your friends. There is too much bad words, at least they could've added a kid mode to hide bad words and inappropriate pictures. What about the explicit mode? It doesn't even do anything. Also, Discord are REALLY rude. If you see their homepage, they are showing off and saying they are better than Skype and Teamspeak, which I see very immature and rude. You will find Discord admins acting like a 10 year old very often.

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Violence & scariness

Sexy stuff

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Consumerism

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

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A good app.

Good for gamers of all kind. While in some cases, there can be language and other bad things, most of the time if you use it with friends it usually there won't be any of it if it isn't wanted. A great app to use.

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Good Quality

Discord is a free online chat room for gamers. You can have an account that is only possible to access from the computer you made it on, or you can enter an email to have "claimed" your account. On the site, users can direct message each other or chat in servers with multiple people. Since this does count as a social site, there will be some downs to it. You can choose to either talk in texting or talk using your voice, no webcam. Neither chatting options are moderated. However, on some servers there are Discord users who are "mods" who can make sure there is no bad behavior. I personally use Discord for the online game MiceForce which is a server of the game Transformice. In my experience, I have never come across foul behavior, but I don't doubt for a second that it's possible. Overall, I think Discord is a great site.

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Secure and Geared Towards Many Audiences

Discord is a social-networking platform that was made in 2015. Since then it has gained massive support from both large communities and influential investors, including such names as Greylock and Benchmark. I will breaking up this review into 3 categories: The Discord mission and how it was achieved, the community, and my personal experiences with the service.
1) The Purpose of Discord:
Discord was launched with the main goal as to be an alternative for gamers to chat, substituting Skype and Teamspeak, two other successful (previously) chat services. The main problem with these two was that they had a monetary incentive that they had to follow, charging the user money for talking across regions or using certain features. With Discord, you can talk with people across the world with no charges. You must be thinking there's some strings attached to this, but no, there really isn't. Discord gets the majority of the money it needs to sustain itself via its investors, donations, and their "premium" service, Discord Nitro, which allows you to use "global emotes," have a .GIF as your profile picture, and a boosted upload limit (can now upload 50 MB+ files). Here's a chart comparing Discord's competitor, Skype, versus the Discord client: https://www.slant.co/versus/4554/5637/~skype_vs_discord . Discord has kept a constant hook due to its server feature, where a person can create a server, assign roles to people (such as moderator, friend, administrator, etc.), and create a community. Some servers revolve around a YouTuber, game, or are just random chat places for people to hang out.
2) The Community:
Not that much to say here as it is basically what you'd expect from a free chat service. Not that it's disappointing, or anything. Discord's community is very expansive, making it hard to be able to know whether or not there will be inappropriate content in the server. Knowing this, I think that only kids 13+/kids who are comfortable with seeing possible nudity (usually nudity is against server rules unless it is in designated NSFW chatrooms) and gore, swearing, influential content, and other negative possibilities. Not to say that Discord's community is filled with nasty, vile people who want nothing more than to scar your children.
3) My Experience:
Really awesome, actually. Great alternative to Slack, Teamspeak, and Skype. Check it out.

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A great app!

So here's the review I was planning to write 9 months ago. I used to use Skype more but then 3 months ago I found Discord to be a bit more useful for me. It's well-made, and even though there are a lot of features to learn, it's really easy to navigate. I personally like the idea of the servers, because you can't go in servers with different chat channels on Skype. Discord's more organized, and big plus, it doesn't have ads. Currently, I use Discord to talk in this one gradually inactive but awesome server that someone made...but other times I use it to text or talk with other friends. I do agree with the other people who reviewed; whenever you join a server with let's say more than 10 people then there might be a lot of profanity, NSFW content, bullying, and etc. Other than that, I recommend Discord to people. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Discord is also secure.

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An **EASY** Way Around

Discord is fantastic it is safe as it does not show private information much like skype and other social medias. It is easy to use and well made so you and your children can navigate the app well. If you set your privacy settings well or even the default is only people you have personally friended can talk to you. You can create discord servers with multiple chats for your friends to join. As well as joining other peoples chats, before you become worried I suggest you know that there are moderators and administrators therefore if something does go wrong they can issue a warning, mute, kick or even ban from the chat. I think discord is fine and can be used by almost everyone

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discord!

i got discord from a friend and lots of my friends are on it so its so cool to talk to them in places and post pictures and have fun on it but if your on it dont tell any one private things you dont know whos seeing it but if theres a good place that all your friends are on its really awesome! i love it! but its not really for kids but my friends make it okay for me and are nice but i dont know if its like that for all of it so yeah but its fun and good for having friends and playing on like a game but talking and things

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Almost Every Review Here Is Wrong

I am a casual gamer, and have been using discord for about 2 years now. Ive seen it grow, change and develop, which gives me a bit more insight that your average 35 year old protective mom. Its a social media website at base, aimed at gaming communities thanks to a few different features. Its basically a more community driven version of skype. people also seem to talk about 8 year old kids getting sent nudes, and other disgusting things, but if they read the first few sentences you are given when signing up it tells you the site is for people over the age of 13+. They say that for a reason.People. BE SMART ONLINE. anonymity is a blessing and a curse, and realize that a 8 year old wont be able to act properly in a situation like that. use the site properly, talking with people you know before going onto public servers. like instagram, snapchat, or any social media platfom anything can be said in direct messages so make sure if someone adds you as a friend, which is required (unless you mess with settings) to text each other, that you know who they are. if you are mature enough to go on public servers, be prepared that not everything will be PG, like real life.

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So simple to use

I've been using Discord for almost 2 years now and I have to say it's fantastic. Setting up a group or server to chat with friends is very easy. You can also join public servers to meet new people, but be careful. Many servers contain cussing, violence, NSFW content and more, examine every server carefully before joining it or letting your child join it. Discord allowed me to speak with many people and friends at a time especially while gaming. The only big disadvantage I find are, again, the communities you can join. Simple solution to this is watch your child's activity, but don't get to crazy and start reading everything they read and say.

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Alright app

I like this app as I am able to communicate with my friends which I see at school. I don't really use it for anything else so it's not that dangerous. Also, you can block people on it and more to keep safe.

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A good service, but questionable users.

I see a large amount of parents jumping to conclusions with reviews. i understand that people can be morbid, but its your job as a parent to monitor your child. anyway, discord has a rule that no one over the age of 13 should use it. AND IF YOU LETTING YOUR 8 YEAR OLD CHILD USE IT (your a bad parent) the service itself is fine, i've never seen any other service as good, atleast from what i've used.

The best app

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Very Well-Done App - But Be Careful For Younger Users

Discord is a great app. You can design an entire server from the ground up, voice chat, friend request people, and so much more. There's definitely a lot of inappropriate content on certain servers, but in all honesty that's just the internet. If you're a parent who's afraid of inappropriate content then the best thing to do is probably only allow your kids into private servers with close friends. That or public servers with strictly family-friendly content. Overall very good app, but can lead to some inappropriate content if handled incorrectly.

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Discord and How it's PERFECTLY Safe for 13+ as intended (guide for parents like my own):

I've been using Discord for almost three years and here's what I've understood about Discord. I was an early Hypesquad member (back before it was made available to everyone and it had all that weird faction stuff) and I am an Early Supporter of Discord.
Discord is an application that you can access by downloading it through the App Store/Google Play Store on your phone, downloading the application for your PC/Mac through Discord's website (discordapp.com), or simply accessing it on the web browser edition, through the miracle it calls a website. (I use the web browser edition myself because I use a Chromebook to access my social medias. I do not enjoy using mobile Discord at all on my Chromebook or even on a phone (it sends too many notifications for me to handle). I do have a computer that I could potentially use for Discord, but its use is only for my art, because of it's slowness and small keys that are unfit for fast typing.
Discord is a chat for gamers, it proclaims! I agree it is, depending on who you are and what you prefer using it for. Discord, in reality (from my perspective), is more than just a chat for gamers. It has the key features of being a gaming chat application, but many use it for more than just that. Some use it to get together with people with similar interests (TV shows, Movies, Music...anything you could think of), uniting communities together (MANY, MANY Youtubers use Discord to get closer and more in touch with their fans through Discord "servers") or friends just making "servers" for the pure fun of just talking their close friends.
It's just like any other chatroom, really. It's nothing special other than being amazingly modern compared to other platforms like Skype, Chatzy or Teamspeak...to name a few.
For any parents likeminded to my own, you are still wanting to throw down the ban hammer on Discord's head and keep your children as far away from it as possible, because it's labeled as a chatroom. I understand, there are many dangers on the internet that worry many parents. Pedophiles, Cannabalists, Kidnappers, Murders and anything you can poke a stick at. You fear that your child could possibly be the next victim to this horrible reality, so what is your simple solution? Burn every bridge that could make this even remotely possible. With that simply, your child is safe as you'd like to tell yourself.
But, from my perspective, Discord is safe and here are 6 reasons why:
1. Your child's account can only be found if you insert a specific set of characters.
With Discord, you automatically have very high security on your account. Your account comes with something called a "discord tag", which is a number sign with a set of four numbers at the end of your username (Example: FortniteFan!#8930). No one can find your account unless you give out your username and discord tag personally. Then again, if someone finds your account (out of luck or from a Discord "server") you have the choice to accept them as a friend or ignore- just like Facebook!
2. People cannot talk to you unless you accept them as a friend.
This is a default setting in your Discord options, but you can change them. There are many things you can do in the options of Discord- like block sexually explicit content!
3. Discord servers are not as easily accessible as normal chatrooms.
Servers are the communities of Discord, it's what Discord's all about. This is where the chatroom portion contributes into Discord...and where the many worries about Discord come up. But, as I said before...Discord servers are what Discord is all about, embrace it! There are not many people who talk to you strangely in Discord severs unless they want to get banned. Then, if someone's randomly trying to be your friend from that server and you've literally never talked to them before...don't accept the request.
To begin, you can create a server or join one, whichever you fancy---but there's a catch. If you are joining a server, you MUST be invited to the server by someone who is already in the server with a link that has NOT expired (they can last 1 day to just never expiring ever-- unless the owner deletes the invite from the server settings) and/or used already (you can set limits on this---but the owner can still delete your invite either way). Without a server link, you cannot join the server (and that's if the owner didn't turn off the "create invite" button). You cannot automatically join a Discord server without your knowledge, because with the invite link you are taken to another tab that confirms you are joining this server--- so basically, you consent to whatever you're getting yourself into.
4. Discord servers with +5,000 people in it could be dangerous...but they're not.
If you join a server created by a Youtuber and they decide to post an invite link onto their channel, many people from around the world...including (maybe) yourself join! The join numbers rack up fast after that. This is more of the large scale type of chatroom that seems risky for anyone who glimpses over it. There are millions of different kinds of channels on Discord which means anything could be hiding in those channels...which brings me to my next topic in this section. (Channels are categories separated by number signs specialized for a specific topic....in my server I have a channel called #videos where you post videos and conversate about them. I have another called #art where you post your art for everyone to see.) At the beginning of Discord's days, they didn't have this feature I'm about to mention...but now they do! It's the NSFW Channel feature! When making a channel, you insert the name of your channel and then there's another option listed below that says: "NSFW Channel". With this, you answer yes or no...without the yes or no- just white which signifies no or blue which signifies yes. If your channel is called #NSFW, your channel is automatically marked as NSFW. Before anyone can enter these channels (and I mean ANYONE from 13 to 1,007 years of age) they're asked if they're over 18. They tell you that there's adult content ahead. If you consent to it by pushing the "Proceed." button then that's your own fault for possibly getting caught looking at...odd Fortnite...and Minecraft...porn? Yuck, that's a sticky situation, good luck explaining that to Mom! If you avoid the channel and mute it like a good kid (which you can do with all channels and whole entire servers), then you're all good!
5. Private group chats and how to deal with those.
With private group chats, anyone in your friends' list can add you into one of these. The maximum users of a group chat are 10 users. If you do not want to be in a group chat, you could simply leave and explain to your friend why you left. If you're the owner and you don't like how someone is acting, you can kick them from the group chat. (You can also do that in your owned servers! You can also ban there too, but not in group chats.)
6. What to do if you run into a sketchy person.
First of all, if they are Direct Messaging you on Discord...that's your own fault for letting them into your friends' list. Maybe you deserve it. If this happens directly in a big server, they'll be banned if you inform a Moderator or the owner about it then, (most of the time) they will make an announcement about the person and to avoid them at all costs (I have seen this in a server because they @everyone'd the server about it). If the sketchy person doesn't leave you alone, block them (hides every message they've sent and they can't contact you anymore) or contact Discord themselves via. email or Twitter. They always respond on Twitter- even to stupid and silly stuff. (I've said, "I love you." to their Twitter account and they replied, "I love you too!" about an hour later.) Discord is one of the most understanding organizations out there and they are always there to help! They would especially help in a situation like this.
Those are the top 6 things that came to my head in an instance when I thought about what makes Discord safe. Hopefully, I have painted a wonderful picture of how well done Discord has done with its application to make it safe for everyone to use.

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